Book Vs Movie: The Hunger Games

Just a few days ago, the movie Catching Fire came out, which is the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy. I haven’t seen it just yet (a 10 month old keeps you at home most days), but I did see the first Hunger Games Movie. My thoughts below:

Plot

Book: The plot of this story is in some dystopian universe, the leaders decided that to prevent a revolt, they would have two teens from each state fight to the death with other states once a year. It’s a rather strange concept, but it works. Naturally, the main character from the story is chosen as a tribute, and she kicks butt, takes names, and all that.

Movie: There weren’t really any important plot changes in the movie, which I appreciated. There did seem to be less opulence in the Capitol in the movie, which I didn’t like. One of the things I liked best in the movie was the contrast between the poor districts and the wealth of the capitol.

Characters

Book: I thought all of the characters in the book were well thought-out and detailed. I particularly liked Gale, and I was sad he wasn’t a bigger part in the movie.

Movie: I liked the actors chosen to play the parts for the most part. I particularly liked Katniss, Haymitch and President Snow. I did not like who plays Gale or Peeta. They both seem wooden and stiff.

Setting

Book: When I read the book, I always thought it was set in the future. I imagined kind of a Star Wars look to the people, with sort of futuristic clothing. There wasn’t a lot to go on regarding the setting in the book, so I shouldn’t have been surprised what the movie did with it, but I still was.

Movie: The movie put everyone in kind of 1950s clothing in the towns, and kind of circus costumes for the Capitol. I wasn’t super excited about how this was done, but it could have been a lot worse.

Feel

Book: What I got from the book was a cautionary feeling about letting one government or power have too much control. There was a huge difference highlighted between the lives of the Capitol residents (complete with vomiting to make room for more food) and the lives of the coal town residents, who had to eat stale bread or poach for food. I felt that was the main focus of the book.

Movie: The movie took a different path. I felt like the main focus was on the romance between Peeta and Katniss, even though in the book she didn’t even really like him. So, I wasn’t a big fan of that focus of the movie.

Winner

I liked the book a lot better, and if you are going to watch the movie, you should also read the book, but the movie wasn’t bad. It could have been a lot worse. I enjoyed the movie, and I thought it represented the book about as well as any movie can.

I'm Brenda. I'm a writer and a reader. Daily Mayo is all about having fun while reading, without rules! If you love books as much as I do, join the DM Book Lover's Club to keep up with the latest in the book world and get the DM Book Club Reading List.Come get to know me and let's talk books!

Comments

I read the book and watched the movie too; I thought the book had so much more detail in it- but I think that’s just normal since the movie can’t include all that was mentioned in the book. I liked how you compared each aspect in the book to that in the movie. I definitely think the book should be read before watching the movie. 🙂

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[…] and why? (If you’ve never read them which do you think you’d prefer?) I think I prefer Hunger Games. Twilight is not really my thing- vampire romances just don’t make sense to me, and Divergent […]

I'm Brenda. I'm a writer and a reader. Daily Mayo is all about having fun while reading, without rules! If you love books as much as I do, join the DM Book Lover's Club to keep up with the latest in the book world and get the DM Book Club Reading List.Come get to know me and let's talk books!